Gary Johnson: The Founding Fathers Were Right... The Two-Party Duopoly Has Failed

by Thomas A. Hawk, published Sep 7, 2016

In an op-ed published in the Washington Post, Gary Johnson says Founding Fathers like James Madison and George Washington were right... a political system dominated by two parties was doomed to failure.

Johnson writes:

"Shortly after drafting the Massachusetts Constitution, John Adams expressed his greatest fear for the nation: “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader. . . . This . . . is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil.”

He wasn’t alone. James Madison warned against the dangers of factionalism. And in his farewell address, George Washington called “party dissension” a kind of “frightful despotism,” warning that a party leader would be prone to pursue his own agenda “to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”

[...]
Has the two-party division that the founders railed against become today’s political status quo?
"It doesn’t have to be. With the Republicans and the Democrats having nominated their most polarizing presidential candidates in more than a generation, now is the moment for a third way."

The former governor of New Mexico added that many partisans in Washington put party loyalty above the people and the country's needs.

"It’s eerie to see Republicans under Donald Trump denounce free trade and limited government. It’s unsettling to see how comfortable Democrats have gotten with Hillary Clinton’s approach to Middle East regime change as secretary of state," he said.

Johnson says his presidential ticket offers voters a platform of fiscal responsibility, social inclusion, and an end to a hyper-partisan approach to policy.

"With a chief executive free of any obligation to either party, the focus will be on the business of the nation, not on propping up a crumbling party apparatus," he argues.

The libertarian presidential ticket is currently polling as high as 12 percent in some national polls. In the latest GWU/Battleground poll he is at 11 percent. In the latest NBC News/Survey Monkey and IBD/TIPP polls, he is polling at 12 percent. He is polling at 15 percent or higher in midwestern states, and some key battleground states like Colorado.

The bad news for Johnson is he is not polling as high in the national polls hand-picked by the Commission on Presidential Debates to determine debate inclusion.

However, recent reports exclusive to IVN News highlight shocking realities about some of the polls used by the debate commission. The Fox News polls, for instance, include only 17 percent independents, even though national surveys consistently show that approximately 4 in 10 Americans identify as independent of the Republican and Democratic parties.

Further, CNN/ORC polls don't even sample Millennials, who make up nearly a third of the electorate and are now the largest living generation in the United States. Though Millennials have not voted at as high of levels as Gen Xers and Boomers, many have found it odd that the poll doesn't sample this age demographic at all.

The first presidential debate of the general election will take place on Monday, September 26. It is unclear when the debate commission will decide if a third candidate will be included on the debate stage alongside Trump and Clinton. It is clear that Johnson is making significant headway with voters.